MUSICAL ANCESTORS(Charles E.J. Moulton) It was the 23rd of April 1939. My mother was in the third grade in the girl’s school in Kalmar in Sweden. John Steinbeck had just published “The Grapes of Wrath”. The filming of the epic “Gone with the Wind” had been going on for over three months. Lars-Erik Larsson famous Pastoral Suite was performed in Stockholm and Tina Turner was born.

During this eventful year, shortly before the Second World War, my ancestor Adolf Kronzell left the Orchestral Association of Helsingborg after 37 and a half years’ service. I took the time to transcribe some old clippings from my family scrapbook. These two pieces of musical history are well worth reading.

This is an excerpt from the newspaper Helsingborg’s Dagblad from April 23rd of 1939:

55 YEARS AS A TRUMPETER IN HELSINGBORG
When Maestro Lidner broke a conductor’s baton
Adolf Kronzell from the Helsingborg Orchestral Association shares his experiences with us

On Wednesday the Helsingborg audience takes a fond farewell of musical director Lidner. This concert will also be first trumpeter Adolf F. Kronzell’s last appearance with the orchestral association after 37 and a half years of service, just like he left the Swedish Royal Army Orchestra fifteen years ago, in 1924, after having played his instrumental parts as a brilliant soloist for almost four decades.

Orchestral conductor and musical Director Lidner conductor’s baton and Sergeant Kronzell’s trumpet have actually been companions for 45 years: in military march bands, in popular concerts and as parts of the orchestral association.

When we visited Mr. Kronzell for a farewell interview yesterday and asked him tell us about some old memories, he first tells us how Lidner took over the Swedish Royal Army Orchestra in 1894. The fact that Mr. Kronzell remembers this story first of all is no coincidence.
“I want to say that I have Mr. Lidner to thank for what I know,” Mr. Kronzell tell us with a strong magnetic gaze before going on to tell us about the new conductor’s entrance. “It was the 3rd of August, 1894. The by now 97-year-old Musical Sergeant Svensson presented Lidner to the Swedish Royal Army Orchestra. After that, Lidner took the conductor’s baton in his hand. We were going to rehearse Lidner’s own musical march composition in Herrevad’s monastery. He hit the music stand with his baton, in order to attract attention, and promptly broke the baton.
“It was fantastic,” Mr. Kronzell goes on, “to hear and play with so many orchestras and marching bands of such high quality.”
“But wasn’t it hard to compete with all those fantastic orchestras?” we ask.
“No,” Mr. Kronzell answers us. “We were popular everywhere. During our farewell concert in Hamburg we received a visit by the marvelous and by now deceased Danish poet Holger Drachmann, who gave Lidner a laurel wreath and showered us with compliments about how marvelous our concert had been.”

The concert on Wednesday the 26th of April 1939 will start with Beethoven’s most mysterious composition, his Symphony No. 5 in C-Minor, which has been performed successfully on numerous occasions by Lidner and the orchestra during his time as a conductor. The second part of the concert is completely dedicated to Stenhammar’s ingenious musical composition based on Heidenstam’s “One people”. The Symphony Chorus and the Male Chorus Harmoni are taking part.


Now, a newspaper article about my mother Gun Margareta Kronzell published during her heyday from the local newspaper Barometern in 1971:

KALMAR’S OPERASINGER IS A EUROPEAN STAR!
HER FATHER KNUT GAVE HER HIS UNENDING SUPPORT

Think about this for a moment: Gun Kronzell can sing!
This discovery was made during Gun Kronzell’s last year at the Girl’s School in Kalmar. Nobody at the school had heard her before, neither the teachers nor the school friends knew it.
Now everybody in Europe knows it.
She is a star.
Gun Kronzell, born on Nygatan 16 in Kalmar, lives in Vienna and works as a Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano all across the continent. She has been working at the Volks-Opera in Vienna during the Springtime and has sung on many European Stages , including London’s Festival Hall. Her appearances in Sweden have been few, but now the Kalmar audience has the possibility to hear her fantastic voice in the Kalmar Cathedral on Monday. There will be two other concerts in the local area.
She lives all summer in her mother Anna’s and her father Knut’s apartment on Odengatan and is taking with her son Charlie. Her husband Herbert Eyre Moulton is still in Vienna, working at the English speaking theatres as an actor, teaching English, creating school radio programs for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) and writing plays.
“My husband and I met in Hannover in Germany. We were both working singers and shared the same singing teacher. I asked him if he would speak English with me. Since then, we have only spoken English with each other. That is, when we are on speaking terms,” Gun laughs with a twinkle in her eye. “We love performing with each other and promote ourselves as The Singing Couple.”

MULTILINGUAL

Two year old Charlie is raised to speak many languages, among them English and German. His grandparents are right now teaching him Swedish. Some day he will be able to compete with his mother, who fluently speaks at least three languages, if not more.
Sea Captain and Swedish Church Chief Accountant Knut Kronzell wanted to become an opera singer, but his parents had other plans. He had to be satisfied with singing for his family at festive gatherings. In the beginning, Gun wasn’t impressed. But as time went on, she was.
When she applied to study at the Royal Musical Academy in Stockholm, her father Knut gave her all his support.

A FAMOUS FAMILY

Success came flying from high and wide and from all the right places. Her education was superb, her vocal range was phenomenal, her interpretation became renowned: a perfect mixture. Stockholm’s Opera House was too limited a forum and Gun moved to Germany, where Bielefeld, Hannover, Köln, Recklinghausen, Wiesbaden, Paris, Brügge and Graz has become her own “home turf.”
Her husband Herbert Eyre Moulton is from Chicago. He is a singer, author and works for Austrian Radio. Last year he joined his wife in order to sing at the festival Kalmar 70. This year he has not had any time to come to Sweden.

VITALLY ITALIAN

“I like acting on stage,” Gun Kronzell says. “It’s better than singing concerts. I feel lonelier on the concert stage. The opera stage is always lively and full of action.”
The Italian composers are among her favorites. Verdi is number one. Of course.

A LIFE FULL OF SONG

Gun Kronzell:
“I’m actually quite tired of Wagner. He was an amazing composer, but in his operas there is a whole lot of endless singing and that gets strenuous for the audience. Brünhilde, Erda, Kundry, Ariadne, I’ve sung them all, and I was always happy to have a good vocal technique to help me get through those roles and a happy to wear a good pair of shoes.”
The new kind of pop music world wide radio keeps playing is not something Gun dislikes. The Beatles have many good successors, she says. Charlie just loves pop music. The hotter, the better.

SWEDEN’S TOP 40

Gun Kronzell doesn’t mind hot music. However, schmaltzy Schlager Muzak is not her thing and she admits that she also doesn’t really know what’s hot in Swedish popular music today.
“I have no idea what vinyl EPs are being handed over the counters and what songs are making the top record charts in Sweden right now,” she laughs.

RADIO

Gun Kronzell will record a radio program for Swedish Radio this year. Her concert from last year, recorded at the festival Kalmar 70, will appear in a rerun.
This autumn there will be a whole range of continental concerts.
“I have to return to Kalmar at least once a year,” she says. “That family contact is important, the sea air rejuvenates me, the food, the sun, the laughter, the flowers and the friends. And my mom and dad are very happy when I come. Especially when I bring Charlie along.”

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